Preferent Kinship Part 2

'The Future relationship of dog and man'

It causes me to ponder...The purview of the 'expendable'......The mind set of this generation....
...I blame it on the advent of the disposable razor...

Yep, that's what started the whole snowballing effect....

That and the 'virtual' age...

Something is happening to us as we gravitate toward the alluring easier softer road technology prognosticates it's self to be.
...I sense a condition has developed in our social value system that warrants scrutiny...
Like, for example, the outfit that releases new computer operating systems on the market then spends the next few years ironing out an already 'paid in full' product by casually posing 'bug fixes' as,......'updates'...
We have become accustom to jumping in head first and fixing the repercussions 'in the mix'.
In the case of the future relationship of dog and man,....

the repercussions that worry me are not just minor wake disturbances created by the forward progression of a large ship...
It is the ship itself that concerns me,..

and the path of it's navigation..

The virtual pet industry: http://virtualpet.com/
The 'Future of Virtual Pets' link on the site above was written in 1997....
Portions of that document are as follows:
Applications:
We see increased personalization of pets. Just as there are now many kinds of animals and many breeds of each animal used as pets, we think the virtual pet world will mimic the real world in terms of variety.
We see applications ranging from very light weight screen savers to heavy duty full blown virtual reality applications complete with goggles and sensing gloves. To highly developed physical "virtual pets"
We've long envisioned a remote controlled fish or shark that could be driven around in an aquarium by its owner. You could play with the other fish and amaze visitors.
Therapy applications for the mentally handicapped, those in prison, and other will abound.
The military and police might make use of physical "virtual dogs" in security and sniffing applications.
Physical virtual pets could be made to look like anything, including people.
Users:
We see young children being able to learn how to care for a pet before they get a real one. Those in constrained living conditions (hospitals, nursing homes, military duty, prisons, firemen, inner city apartments, college dorms) will be able to have some of the benefits of owning a pet without interfering with their environment. The elderly will have some companionship and something to regularly do. Some of more physical applications (tamagocchi) will allow non computer users to participate.
Physical virtual pets (dog and cat robots) will allow a fuller experience of pet ownership, and as mentioned in the applications section, could actually open a new realm of pet ownership as you control the pet and interact with other animals (real or virtual).

WowWee Robotics RoboPet

I pulled this off the Amazon site....Retail value new 99.00
What's interesting is the review comments from customers who bought it:

This is the ultimate pet. No messes, trainible, and fun! I dont have it, i just saw others playing with it at a store. In that store is the new Robosapien V2. V2 acually made this guy do tricks! And even better, my little brother told it to sit. It sat! I can asure endless hours of playing when he gets it for christmas. Again, GET THIS TOY! IT IS BETTER THAN A TOY!

I tryed this with friends and in stores it is soooooo much fun! I may have pets already but this is east to take care of no messes,no taking it out on walks,or watching after it every mintue! I love my pets so much but I really like this and I would say to any child who doesn't have a pet "This is the one for you,it is easy and fun!".

It's like he is a real dog!!! This toy, I mean pet, is great!! The only problem is that Robo Pet is rather loud, and sometimes when I play with it, my parents get a little mad because it is fun, but it makes a lot of noise, but I don't regret it, even though $80 is an outrageous price for this, but it is still awesome. Soooooooooo, go ahead. Buy it!!!

Looking back at the foundations of the Man and Dog friendship. I feel it is important to remember the benefit Man received at that time were of an enhancement in his basic struggle to survive...As Man developed commerce the versatility of the Dog coupled with the refinement of select breeding allowed Dogs to fill the spots of 'employment' as needed..
Granted pets today are a household item more so than any time in history.
I know many people have an emotional commitment to their animals that rates right up there with the love one experiences with a child.
So, what's the 'bitch' Loosecanon?...(Oh man,...busted by the 'pun' police)
Well it's not so much a bitch as a worry...I know how people 'are'..That's what worries me...The individual is smart...The individual takes the time to be well informed on interested subjects...It's the campaigns directed at the mass conscience of the uninformed that take their toll..

Rural to urbal living:
This huge change in the way Americans live their lives is a result of an economic game plan put into action more than fifty years ago..Relentless pressure has been placed on the backs of the working class.
The goal being to allow big business faster growth, bigger profits, with the end result being more opportunity for the working class in the form of careers, better paying jobs, working for the Corporation their tax dollar support fast tracked to success.....

I don't want to get started on this cuz I am just going to get pissed off.......

Instead, just use the relationship of ancient man and dog as described in Preferent Kinship part 1 as an analogy.....It's a 'win-win' situation..
I'll let you decide who gets to be the 'dog'....

As Americans become urbanized living spaces become smaller...The necessity for 'animal controls' becomes a new career opportunity...
Business is booming, however the working class is finding it harder and harder to 'get by'...This results in less 'quality time' affordable outside of work...
This is not a big deal for the immediate family unit....After all both husband and wife "love our career's" ....And it's so healthy for little Junior to get all those social contact skills at the Child Care Facility five days a week...
But the dog...The damn dog is just never satisfied...
Move over Rover, let Robo pet take over!....

Bottom line:

Give me a Robot Vacuum cleaner...Alright?
A dishwasher or a machine that does laundry, ok...
But don't turn my dog into a Robot...